This is decoy from the start. A relic of the golden age of espionage. I
mean, this isn’t even by “Peter C. Bruno” – if the Bandcamp page is to be
believed, it’s by the Strategic Tape Reserve Staff, meaning Peter C. Bruno
could be anybody. (Or he could actually
be Peter C. Bruno! The mind boggles.) True to form, “False Floor” opens the
tape with Cold War synthpop, suggesting layers that you shouldn’t see but could
if you looked hard enough, or precisely. Spy games aren’t out of the reach of
STR’s strengths, and the collective tries its hand at subtle messaging on Be Linear, which, after the “false floor”
of “False Floor,” descends into deliberate code. “False Floor” is intended to
shake us off the scent – well, at least to mislead anyone who has obtained the
contents of this tape in a manner not befitting the intentions of the label.
They even suggest you keep the tape rewound to the beginning of side A when it’s
not in use to seem innocuous if the authorities ever get a hold of it.
But what’s actually recorded onto this tape is meant for certain ears
only. Each track is a list of secret code words expressed over secret
synthesizer tones, all of which form an elaborate codebook. When words and
tones are transmitted to those in possession of Be Linear, they can use the tape as a cypher to interpret messages.
These messages are likely of the life-and-death variety, alerting agents to enemy
movements and actions. I can confirm this – since this tape has arrived in the
mail, I’ve already received a voice message of synth pulses and carefully
intoned nouns that, when compared to Be
Linear, alerted me to the fact that I’d left the stove on after heating up
some leftover pizza at lunch. This tape has already
saved my life!
Or maybe I’ve said too much.
So whether you think this just a complex piece of performance art or an
indispensable tool for the freedom fighters still at it behind enemy lines will
likely determine whether or not you should even be in possession of this thing.
If you fall into the former category, your instructions are to burn this tape
as soon as you finish reading this “review” (bleep bloop).
https://strategictapereserve.bandcamp.com/
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